


Homecoming

by Fairleigh



Category: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Old Age, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:22:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25267537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairleigh/pseuds/Fairleigh
Summary: “How many years has it been?” he asks. “You look so …old.”She laughs at that; she can’t help herself. “Whereasyoulook like you haven’t aged a day.”
Relationships: Haku | Nigihayami Kohakunushi/Ogino Chihiro
Comments: 5
Kudos: 134
Collections: Juletide 2020





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mr_DeBlob](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_DeBlob/gifts).



Towards the end, Chihiro thinks about decline.

Her parents had been optimists who’d believed that the future was theirs for the taking and that every tomorrow would be better, more just, more prosperous. That money and technology and sheer human ingenuity would solve every problem. They’d allowed their entire adult lives to be guided by this principle, and they’d succeeded in making a good life for themselves and their daughter. Chihiro didn’t begrudge them their views. She didn’t begrudge them any of it.

But Chihiro is not her parents, and she does not share their views. Given everything that she has seen over the years, how can she?

“How many years has it been?” he asks. “You look so … _old_.”

She laughs at that; she can’t help herself. “Whereas _you_ look like you haven’t aged a day.”

When she was a little girl, they drained the Kohaku River so that they could build new apartment buildings. Real estate, they said, was more valuable than gold. People would buy and buy and buy. For themselves. As _investments_. That was what they said. That they — whoever “they” were, this was never actually clear — would never stop buying.

Except, eventually, “they” did.

Now, new building projects of this sort are rare. There just aren’t enough people to fill all the apartment buildings that have already been built. No one’s buying real estate anymore; no one’s investing. And the buildings aren’t needed anymore when so many of the people are gone. Soon, Chihiro knows, there won’t be any people left at all.

“Did you ever marry? Do you have any children?” he asks.

“No husband. No children, either,” she answers. She made her choice long ago, and she harbors no regrets whatsoever.

It’s been a long journey. In many senses, what was bad in the past is worse in the present. She remembers the angry, frightened politicians at home and the lack of international coordination overseas. That began in earnest during her adolescence, and then it never stopped. She realized early on that she wasn’t going to be able to have it all. Instead, she would have to choose what to give up on, what to pursue. It made her angry at first, but eventually she was resigned. She had no choice _but_ to choose.

And so, she did.

A life, dedicated to the restoration of the Kohaku River and its surrounding wetlands. Her life.

It hasn’t always been easy, this work. First, there was the demolition and the cleanup. Then, the plantings. Ecological engineering. Rewilding. The idea that you can simply walk away and let nature take its course? Ha! This is a nice idea, a pretty idea, but in the near term, nothing is further from the truth. Chihiro is one of nature’s guardians, and for as long as her land has people, it will need people like her. Will continue to need, until that faraway day when there are no people left to continue the work.

Chihiro’s work, however, is done.

“I’ve aged as much as you have, you know. I live each day in this world, the same as you,” he says. He looks like he does because this is how she remembers him. He doesn’t need to say it aloud for her to understand.

“I know you have. It’s been a very long time.”

How young he looks as he stands before her, a sweet-faced boy with irises shaded mossy green. But as she steps down towards the river’s edge, he changes: He becomes older, a man in the prime of his life, strong and hale but no less beautiful. Her heart yearns for him.

Chihiro steps into the water, and at last, at long, long last, the Kohaku River welcomes her home.


End file.
